Here is my quick obit. Her name is Margaret Mary Beste Kemp. Beloved  Spouse of Paul Joseph Kemp for 60+ years, beloved mother of 6, grandmother of 10 and greatgrandmother of 2. Just for perspective, her 8 years of elementary schooling were in a 1 room schoolhouse where the 1 teacher was teaching all 8 grades each day and kept the schoolhouse warm with a pot bellied stove in northern Minnesota. The teacher was teacher, principal, counselor, nurse, custodian, and fireman. Born into a farm family, of only 3 girls, she grew up as a farm girl working the family farm. Graduated high school at 15, and from the College of St. Benedict at 19 with a double major in mathematics and library science and a minor in physics. She learned to fly before she was out of high school and got her pilot's license before her drivers license. She became a high school teacher at Moundsview HS, and she was clearly warned not to fraternize/date the students. After teaching high school, she accepted a position setting up the Business and Economics libraries at Notre Dame University, where she met and married my dad.  Then she and Paul settled in Washington DC to raise her family. They fled the riots in NE Washington at M.L.King's assasination in the summer of 1968, to Arlington, VA with 5 children. I was child #6 born that December 1968 in Arlington. She went back to teaching in 1973, and completed a 27 year career with Montgomery County Public Schools, primarily at Walt Whitman HS. Loved playing and teaching the card game of bridge and carried on until cancer came, and she left us for the other side June 4, 2022 at the age of 93.

Here's the movie star pic of my mama that graced my dad's dresser all my life. The story behind it is that some photographer requested to take her photo. He put it in his shop window to advertise his services in a city in the midwest, maybe Minneapolis, or South Bend or St. Paul.

I always enjoyed receiving her annual Christmas letters & cards. I looked forward to them every year. 

I was so sad to come home Saturday to find Gretchen's phone message.  I suspected that it was about her loving, spiritual, long suffering Mom.  My heartfelt condolences go out to all of you.
I have so many memories.  When your Aunt Celestine got married and moved into the house next door to us, she immediately adopted us and you all became our little cousins (at that time it was only Gretchen, Helen, Paul, and John).  I remember going to DC during the riots in 1968(?) to rescue you, packing the clothes to take in laundry baskets.  I remember your Mom pregnant with Anne, I think.  I remember many a Thanksgiving or other holiday get together with you all  (I will try to attach a picture if I can).  I have all the letters, cards, and photos she sent us every holiday ( at least the ones that she sent me after I grew up and was living on my own).  She was always so faithful at keeping us up to date.  I will miss those letters.
You were blessed to have your Mom for so long, but I know it still hurts to lose her.  Now she will be able to meet her beloved Lord in person and rejoin her loving husband Paul.

OBITUARY

Margaret B. Kemp

February 21, 1929 – June 4, 2022

Murphy Funeral Homes

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